Torn from the front page: Districts shouldn't be able to withhold high school diplomas for fees owed

Students earn their diplomas through their grades. When they graduate, they deserve to receive those diplomas, regardless of any outstanding debt they owe to the school district.

One has nothing to do with the other.

Yet, Davison High School, and probably lots of other high schools in Michigan, hold diplomas hostage, handing them over only when any and all outstanding balances have been paid.

Michael Swain wants to change that, and we support his effort to see the state enact legislation to bar this practice.

The Davison teen, who has a 3.5 grade point average, was told he would not get his cap and gown, high school diploma and college transcripts if he didn’t pay $10 owed on a textbook that Davison Middle School administrators said had been returned with a damaged binding four years before.

Swain, who hopes to become a lawyer one day, has worked on several local political campaigns and served as a page in the U.S. House of Representatives. He contacted state lawmakers, including Rep. Charles Smiley, D-Burton, for help. Smiley is now pursing the issue with another state representative, Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor.

School policy dictates that students are responsible for damaged or lost books. The same goes for school lunch accounts, field trip fees, book fines and damage to school-issued uniforms.

Fine.

We understand that schools, especially now, can’t pick up tab. Nor are we advocating that they should, regardless of their budgets.

As district spokesman Michelle Edwards points out, not only can’t the district afford to give kids a pass — in 2010, Davison shelled out $3,600 in book rebinding fees alone — ultimately, they are teaching a lesson in responsibility.

“The school district’s approach is that students should be prepared for adulthood academically, socially and fiscally.”

We’re all for that. If they are responsible for damage to school property, they should pay.

But to keep their diplomas, their college transcripts, etc.? Sorry, that strikes us as a bit much.

The punishment, at least in this case, hardly fits the crime. It’s excessive in the extreme.

All that for a $10 fine. Or, in the case of another student, a $3 lunch account balance that the student claims he didn’t owe, since he didn’t eat in the cafeteria.

That said, Swain could have and should have made good on the fee earlier. He had four years to do it, after all.

And it’s not as if the fee or the possible consequences for not paying it were unknown to him.

Unpaid fee reminders are posted on their report cards and made regularly via the public address system. He knew he owed the fee.

He argues there at least should be an appeals process. He said when he met with Davison Principal Martha Morris to discuss the matter, “there was no room to argue.”

There should be an appeals process given what is at stake.

Swain has since paid his fine. But he’s fighting on for the sake of others.

The ball is now in Lansing’s court. The Legislature should take up this matter and do what’s right.